Naturipe Farms, along with SAP, has shared a new video which demonstrates how the company's use of blockchain technology is being put into practice. The video begins right in the middle of a blueberry field in Chile. A worker places the generated QR code sticker on to a rack of fruit they have just harvested. The racks are eventually taken to the shed to be scanned and then weighed. This QR code remains with the fruit through shipment all the way to the end-customer.
So what can these codes store? The codes tell the whole story of the fruit, even in greenhouses. For growers, it tells them what conditions the fruit has been in, such as temperature, fertilization and irrigation. Further data is collected, from fruit conditions to physical locations at any given time. It is all stored onto the QR code which can be accessed by anyone with a QR scanner, whether that is the grower, shipper, buyer or the end consumer. It is Naturipe's intention for all their berries grown around the world to have this QR code system.
Currently, the majority of produce is traced manually, with hand-written logs accompanying the fruit on its journey. "Just in that process alone, there can be delays of up to four hours for an air shipment, up to two days for a boat shipment for a product to get cleared and go through customs," said Naturipe's IT Director Carol McMillan. She added that not only will it speed up the paperwork process and ensure better accuracy, but the data can be used in the future for improving production. "Freshness is imperative to keep people healthy. We can use all the data input from weather patterns and harvest data to eventually better forecast the future."
The company notes that blockchain will make it easier for consumers to know whether the fruit they are buying has been sourced from fair and sustainable farms - something the company sees as a key area for growth in the future.
For more information:
Brianna Bucinell
Ph: +1 (202) 222-8141
brianna.bucinell@kglobal
www.naturipefarms.com